GTA Really Messed This One Up
When a developer issues a patch for a game, you might assume that patch will improve something and make the game better. Unfortunately, that's not what happened at all with the latest update for Grand Theft Auto 5. Rockstar pushed out the fix with the promise of "General network connectivity improvements" and "Improvements to PC loading times" — things that sound nice and generally harmless. What many players got was a bit of a broken mess and, in some cases, a completely unplayable game.
A look at the GTA Online subreddit tells the tale of an update gone bad. One player described how the game crashed "every time" they tried to boot up a session. Another reported getting a "buzzing sound" on Xbox before their game crashed, as well. You know the one — BRRRRRRRRRRRR. Along with those complaints, a number of other Grand Theft Auto players saw connection issues that prevented them from getting into the online portion of the title. And some of the luckier players who were able to load up GTA Online found themselves unable to take part in "solo public sessions" after the update arrived.
Long story short: it may be hard to think of a time when patch notes were more inaccurate. In many cases, this latest patch did the exact opposite of what Rockstar intended.
That's not to say everyone had issues, though, or all players were affected in a negative way. Judging by some of the messages in the GTA Online subreddit, some were able to load up and play the game just fine, and a few even remarked at how much better the load times had gotten on PC. Others noted that attempting to play in an "Invite only" lobby seemed to get around the networking issues that were purportedly causing trouble in GTA Online.
Still, it's clear there were some shenanigans afoot in this patch, as evidenced by an action Rockstar seemingly took after it dropped. According to Twitter user @TezFunz2, Rockstar dropped yet another update on March 17 for Xbox players. This patch, as that user put, "reverts the game to previous patch," essentially undoing the changes Rockstar made with the newer fix.
At this time, it doesn't appear Rockstar has made any official comment on the issues some are seeing with this GTA update. If you're someone who's having trouble playing Grand Theft Auto 5 or GTA Online, though, you might want to keep an eye out for yet another patch in the next few days.